This invention relates to obtaining consent from an individual to the electronic delivery of financial information such as that required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (e.g., a xe2x80x9csticker updatexe2x80x9d to a mutual fund prospectus already in the possession of the individual).
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that certain individuals such as prospective and existing investors be delivered certain information about investment vehicles such as mutual funds. In the context of a prospective investor in a particular mutual fund, for example, a mutual fund prospectus must be delivered to the prospective investor in such a way that it provides the prospective investor with notice and access. The delivery requirement can be met by sending the prospectus to the prospective investor via the U.S. Postal Service.
Delivering paper prospectuses and hard copies of other SEC-required documents (e.g., xe2x80x9csticker updatesxe2x80x9d to mutual fund prospectuses) to prospective and existing investors is a time consuming and costly endeavor for investment companies. Printing and mailing costs alone can amount to thousands or millions of dollars per year for a single mutual fund.
The SEC has indicated that mutual fund prospectus documents can be distributed in electronic format with the caveat that any electronic delivery must meet at least the SEC""s notice, access, and evidence of delivery requirements.
In accordance with the invention, the physical delivery of electronic media containing SEC-required information (e.g., a computer-readable diskette that is sent to a person via the U.S. Postal Service and that contains in electronic digital format a mutual fund prospectus) can be used as a mechanism to establish electronic delivery of additional SEC-required information (e.g., a xe2x80x9csticker updatexe2x80x9d to the prospectus the person just received on the diskette) or to obtain the receiver""s consent to the electronic delivery of a notification about additional SEC-required information. Such information can be called compliance information.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9ccompliance informationxe2x80x9d is intended to mean any information or data that is required or suggested by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or similar state or national entity or entities in the U.S. or abroad (e.g., the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), state securities commissioners, and state insurance commissioners), to be filed or to be provided to certain individuals such as prospective and existing investors in mutual funds. Examples of documents containing compliance information include mutual fund prospectuses, updates to mutual fund prospectuses (commonly referred to in the industry as xe2x80x9cstickersxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csticker updatesxe2x80x9d), annual and semi-annual reports for mutual funds, Statements of Additional Information (SAIs) for mutual funds, preliminary prospectuses (xe2x80x9cred herringsxe2x80x9d), and final prospectuses. Other examples are disclosure documents for variable insurance products such as variable annuities. Still other examples are disclosure documents for any of a variety of other investment vehicles offered by essentially any entity including, for example, a mutual fund issuer, a corporation, a partnership, an investment company, etc. These types of documents can be called xe2x80x9ccompliance documentsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cregulated financial information documentsxe2x80x9d (RFIDs), and the compliance information contained in such documents generally includes financial, performance, and/or other disclosure information that the SEC (or similar state or national entity or entities in the U.S. or abroad) has determined should be regulated in some fashion such that, for example, certain individuals are provided with sufficient material to make a reasoned and informed decision about whether to invest or continue to invest money in the investment vehicle described in the RFID.
In a disclosed embodiment according to the invention, a computer-readable diskette or other physical electronic media is sent to a prospective investor through the mails using, for example, the U.S. Postal Service as the carrier or it is delivered to the prospective investor by hand. The diskette contains, in electronic digital format, a mutual fund prospectus. The prospective investor then inserts the diskette into a computer and, using one of a variety of possible text editors, word processors, or browsers, is able to display and read the prospectus on the computer monitor. The computer prompts the prospective investor in some fashion to respond to a request for consent to the electronic delivery of at least one additional compliance document or to the electronic delivery of a notification of the existence of at least one additional compliance document that the person agrees to obtain and review. Having secured the individual""s consent, the software on the diskette and/or the computer then electronically communicates (e.g., via a network connection, a modem, etc.) that consent to some other computer for logging. That other computer could be a server maintained by, for example, the issuer of the mutual fund or an independent service. Depending on the specific consent requested and given, the individual might then sometime in the future receive by electronic mail (xe2x80x9cemailxe2x80x9d) an update to the mutual fund prospectus (xe2x80x9cstickerxe2x80x9d) provided on the diskette, or the individual could receive a notification by email that a particular site on the World Wide Web has posted the mutual fund sticker and that the individual should view the sticker at that site by a certain date. The electronic connection is a computer communications link that can be made in a variety of ways including a direct dial-up connection, a private or public network connection, etc. The physical delivery of the diskette to the prospective investor thus is used as a mechanism to obtain consent from the prospective investor for future electronic delivery of additional compliance information.
In one aspect, the invention involves a method and related system for obtaining consent for computer-aided delivery of compliance information. The method and related system provide an individual at a first computer (e.g., a PC owned or used by the individual) with compliance information. The compliance information is provided in such a format that the individual can use the first computer to review it. The first computer also is used to prompt the individual to consent to the computer-aided delivery of additional compliance information. Having obtained the consent, the first computer electronically communicates the individual""s consent from the first computer to a second computer (e.g., a server). The second computer can store the communicated consent and/or forward it to a third computer.
In some embodiments of this aspect of the invention, the individual is provided with the compliance information by forwarding to the individual a computer-readable data storage device (e.g., a 3.5 inch computer diskette or a CD ROM) that contains the compliance information as well as computer-executable instructions that prompt the individual for the consent. In other embodiments, the individual is provided with the compliance information in another manner such as by download to the first computer from a source on the Internet. Regardless of the manner in which the compliance information is provided to or obtained by the individual, after the individual""s consent is obtained and communicated to the second computer, the additional compliance information is delivered to the first computer. This delivery of the additional compliance information can occur immediately upon receipt of the consent by the second computer or it can happen at a later time, and it can be a delivery from the second computer or some other computer. Also, instead of delivering the additional compliance information to the first computer, a notification about the additional compliance information can be delivered to the first computer such as an email message sent to the first computer that identifies the existence and location of the additional compliance information thereby notifying the individual to, for example, visit a particular site on the World Wide Web section of the Internet to view the additional compliance information. Whether it is the actual additional compliance information or a notification thereof that is delivered to the first computer pursuant to the individual""s consent, the delivery is accomplished electronically. That is, the delivery is over a computer communications link (e.g., a modem connection utilizing telephone lines, a network connection utilizing the Internet or some other computer network, etc.). As an example, the electronic delivery can take the form of a file attachment to an email message.
Also, in some embodiments according to this aspect of the invention, the compliance information is contained in a mutual fund prospectus, and the additional compliance information comprises one or more additions or changes (xe2x80x9cstickersxe2x80x9d) to that mutual fund prospectus or an additional RFID. The compliance information and the additional compliance information can be contained in the a variety of other types of compliance documents including, but not limited to, mutual fund annual reports, mutual fund semi-annual reports, replacement mutual fund prospectuses, mutual fund Statements of Additional Information (SAIs), etc.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a manufacture comprising a computer-readable data storage device. The device stores compliance information and computer-executable instructions. The instructions execute on a first computer to cause the first computer to prompt an individual using the first computer to consent to computer-aided delivery of additional compliance information. The instructions also execute on the first computer to cause the first computer to obtain the individual""s consent and then communicate that consent from the first computer to a second computer.
Embodiments in accordance with this other aspect of the invention can include the following features. The instructions stored by the device also can execute on the first computer to cause the first computer to display the additional compliance information after the additional compliance information is received at the first computer. The compliance information can comprise a mutual fund prospectus, and the additional compliance information can comprise one or more additions or changes to the mutual fund prospectus.
The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description and from the claims.